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Shape-Shifting: A review
of Throw Down a Shape 4 November, 1998 by Honor Harger <honor@va.com.au>
In Adelaide a quiet revolution is taking place. Over the past two years a small but uncompromising group of sound artists and musicians have overcome the city's [sub]cultural inertia to produce some of the most uncompromising and enduring live performances the city's underground has seen. The problem is the city hasn't really seen these performances. The micro-scale of these events, exemplified by the mesm.eon performances staged by Matthew Thomas and dj zyzx, the fledgling a p h a. S ia events, and isolated live episodes such as those organised by Zonar Recordings to coincide with the Adelaide Festival, has rendered this tide of activity largely invisible. However in recent months this defiantly experimental subculture has begun to emerge from its place under the rock of Adelaide culture, with established arts institutions such as the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, the Media Resource Centre and the Australian Network for Art and Technology, lending some much needed support to the efforts of these artists. "Sound sampling, a process
that enables a sound or group of sounds to be digitally recorded
and altered in numerous ways, allows for sound to be culturally
"referential" as well as culturally transgressive or
re-creative. Technologically empowered recombination, enables
new forms of juxtaposition and relative abstraction of sonic
material brought about through direct user/listener interaction."
Increased accessibility of digital sound technologies and the proliferation of domestic sound production softwares, has lead to an explosion in the popularity of sound as a mode of expression and transgression in the late 90s. Perhaps reflective of art culture's need to observe a genre in hyper-acceleration, the late 90s has also seen a profusion of international festivals exploring, presenting and exploiting sound art and experimental music. In an aesthetic and intellectual culture of fragmentation, decontextualization and "recombination", sound is rapidly becoming a recognised zone of innovation and experimentation within art and popular cultural contexts. In a reversal of the orthodox metaphor of the 'experimental fringe', the innovations of sound culture could be analysed as coming from the 'heart' of the genre. Often the paradoxical inconspicuousness of the speed with which people at the centre of things move, is lost on the more traditional perimeters. The explosions, implosions, mutations and moultings which occur at the nucleus of a culture, often cool, pacify, and are normalised before they reach the outer edges (the mainstream). For this reason many reflections of the violent psychic upheavals induced by our fast changing culture, are homogenised into self-repeating, innocuous loops before they reach the flaccid edges of the mainstream. (Take the vacuous, trite, angst-by-numbers antics of current pop darling, Ozzy Osbourne / Iggy Pop facsimile, Marilyn Manson for instance). The ability sound has to morph and mutate at the pace of technological and cultural evolution, is reflective in the increasingly erudite proclamations its the genre's more celebrated exponents. " ...Tom Jenkinson (aka
Squarepusher) recognises a piece by Iannis Xenakis in the middle
of other pieces by Throbbing Gristle, Prince, Alec Empire...
Bjork 'engages' with the ideas of Stockhausen. I wonder if this
is somehow new or different. Or is this just how it is, like
a painter engaging in the ideas of Greenberg while being able
to recognise work by Pollock and Rothko..."
In an attempt to illustrate a regional variation on these trends, a number of events exploring the physicality and discord of sound took place in Adelaide late last year. Notable among these events was Throw Down A Shape, presented by the Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia (CACSA), at new lounge club, Supermild, and broadcast on the internet by r a d i o q u a l i a. Curated by director of the CACSA, Linda Marie Walker, the evening was about creating contexts for synthesis: synthesis between artforms which have been engendered through particular aesthetic and social contexts, as belonging to specific genres and styles. In an intermingling of traditional music forms, such as live jazz performance, with experiments by DJs and digital sound musicians, Throw Down A Shape juxtaposed a milieu of different musics and art cultures, in one creative space, allowing for drift to take place from one form to another. After preliminary aural ambience by local artist, Anton Hart, the evening, MC'ed by the jocular Andrew Petrusovics (aka AndyPC), began with a compelling sound performance by Dancing Bear (aka known as elendil). Collating found urban detritus into a low dirge, the restrained roar of the engine of the city, invisible yet tactile, revealed manifold automobile, jet and rail turbines colliding in a thick molten hum. Reflecting the entropic nature of urban culture, the performance was a static chicane of whispers and asphyxiated rumbles, embracing the sable hiss of nightmare abstraction and dead vibrations. Michael Grimm followed in an altogether different vein, with in airing of his wittily titled, "Theme music for two arts organisations in ecstatic battle". The piece comprised of sampled telephone messages intercepted from the answer machines of local contemporary arts organisations, the Experimental Art Foundation, and the CACSA, during their annual ritual of of preparing applications for funding from local authority, ArtSA. Consummately irreverent, intelligent and supremely entertaining, this is another triumph from this unusually insightful and underrated sound artist. By this point in the evening, Supermild's volume restrictions were heightening the collision of different attitudes toward sound and music making, drawing mixed reactions from the sizable audience. In a rarity for live performance, Throw Down A Shape stayed under 100 decibels for the duration of the event, a move lauded by the gallery crowd, while at the same time alienating others, prompting remarks that the intricacies of the performances were barely audible over the exuberant socialising of the crowd. Local artist, Suzanne Triester, unceasingly immersed in the hypermedia tale of Rosalind Brodsky and her complex adventures through time and space, appeared briefly to premier the latest component of this story, two thoroughly catchy pop tunes written with her band, The Satellites of Lvov (aka The Miltons). Easily capable of being chart hits, "Spy in the House of Lvov" and "Satellite of Lvov", (the latter a cover of the Lou Reed song of the same name), are seductive melodies delivered with poised, svelte chic. Suave filmic music by local agent of agitprop art, AndyPC continued the languid atmosphere. AndyPC's whimsically titled "New millennium cafe noir music for relaxed republicans" complemented the debonair and unashamedly retro decor of Supermild, stylishly. His accompanying video, screened on small monitors reminiscent of security consoles, was a monochromatic excursion through a shadowy urban cinemascape. A live performance by digital sound artist, eset {} (aka Adam Hyde), followed. A slippery film of noise coating rich and seductive rhythms, "Doppler Effect v1.0", was a tranquil embrace, which slid over the skin in a glimmering serenade. It quivered, ambiguously, trembling and murmuring, until a reverberating diversion swayed the piece into sonic eddy spinning at a mesmerising rate. Then quavering again, it dissolved into gentle shards of resonance. Borrowing its title from UK based jazz outfit, Fila Brazillia, Throw Down A Shape would not have been complete without an injection of jazz. Local musicians, Libby O'Donovan , Jullian Ferrarretto, Shaun Doddy, and Paul Jancovisc, comprise Brewed, a live jazz / funk ensemble. In a jolt of raw energy, Brewed gave a spirited performance articulating the strange spaces between pain and desire, through subtle jangling rhythms, intricate needlework and mellow acoustic mechanics. "To me the DJ is the cybernetic
inheritor of the jazz tradition of improvisation." As if to prove this adage, Throw Down A Shape arranged for dj Klangan to join Brewed for their final piece, instilling a fresh, almost industrial aesthetic, and drawing threads of chaos and improvisation out of the band. Afterward he and fellow djs, Forrest and Josh Williams, closed the evening with treble shocks, midi splinters and bass assaults, culminating their astute interjections of complex electronica of all gelatinous forms throughout the evening. Like many of the micro-events punctuating Adelaide's often sleepy nightlife, Throw Down A Shape was a small step toward developing a new aesthetic of listening and participation, in a culture more used to appreciating traditional forms of music and performance. It revealed a transparency, an intelligence, and a departure from the gimmicky interfaces often present in more orthodox live and dj events. Adelaide's continued position as a zone of innovation within this context depends on the continuation and viability of these performances. Sound in Adelaide has then, hopefully, begun a process of reflecting the permanent flux of culture in the late 90s. It fights, perhaps successfully, perhaps unsuccessfully, for a self-recognition. But sound, perpetually dissipating, is only momentarily exploded, partly from discoveries made through symptomatic repetitions or, by subterfuge, in the findings of artists.
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